Travel

Last week I was itching for a little mini-adventure, so a friend of mine and I headed to the Chihuly exhibit at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. It turned out to be such a treat – the gardens are incredibly expansive, and the entire area is sprinkled with Chihuly art that you stumble upon during your walk. It was the perfect break from my current stress over jobs (I’m trying to decide between two offices, which is a good problem to have…but my “gut instinct” is being silent for once and I really don’t know which direction to go! Agh!)

As many of you know by now, my favorite weekend activity involves a good book and a glass of wine, preferably in a foreign country. So naturally, my favorite Viennese outing involved wine. Nestled in the hilly outskirts of Vienna are clusters of local vineyards and wine taverns (also known as heurigers), stacked together on quiet cobblestone streets. As you walk from one tavern to the next, sampling a glass of Gemischter Satz here, grabbing a plate of schnitzel there, you’re overcome with a sense of Gemütlichkeit…or as we say in English, coziness and warmth.

Need any more convincing? I’ll give you five reasons why you absolutely MUST take the time to while away an afternoon in an Heuriger:

Don’t get me wrong, there are many things I don’t miss about Boston – the frigidly miserable winters, the brash rapport between pedestrians and drivers, the underlying layer of pretentiousness amongst the vast academic population. However, I do miss the abundance of scenic, cozy independent bookstores that were sprinkled throughout the city and suburbs.

On our return trip from Vienna, we had a 10 hour layover in Paris. Despite the fact that we were staying near the airport which was about a half hour away from the Île de la Cité, and we were gonna have to wake up at 5 AM the next morning for our flight, I was determined to see my beautiful city. So we quickly checked into our hotel and then called an Uber to take us to Notre Dame. Little did we know how much of an adventure it would be…

In case you couldn’t tell from my other posts, I kind of like to read {surprise!}. And like most bibliophiles, I’m a fan of beautiful libraries. So when I noticed the Austrian National Library was open for tours, I jumped at the chance to sneak a peek.

TGIF, y’all! What are your plans for the weekend? I have come down with a bit of a head cold, which actually gives me the perfect excuse to read in bed all weekend long, guilt-free!

Sick day with a good book…never a bad thing 😉

I have several e-galleys on my Kindle that are coming out soon that I need to finish so I can review them for Netgalley. The one I’m most excited to dive into is The Wangs Vs. The World by Jade Chang. It’s Chang’s debut novel and Houghton Mifflen Harcourt has done an incredible ad campaign for this book; I’ve heard TONS of buzz among bloggers and Instagram accounts! It comes out on October 4, so I’ll let y’all know before then what I thought about the novel.

Anyway, to kick off our weekend right, I gathered a few links from around the Internet for y’all to enjoy and explore for travel, current events, and book news!

Rick Steves Best and Worst of Europe – Came across this yesterday on the Rick Steves site. I’m quite a fan of Mr. Rick, and it was fun to hear his honest opinions on his favorite (and not so favorite) destinations. He also lets you know that his opinion changes a lot, so don’t worry if your favorite city is on his “worst” list! It’s all in good fun ;).

The Skimm News emails : Making it easier to be smarter, FOR FREE. It’s a daily (Mon-Fri) email delivered to your inbox in the AM with a “highlights” version of all the major news stories from the past 24 hours. I read it every morning as soon as I wake up. They have giveaways for trips and monthly meet ups with other Skimmers!

Coffee and The Skimm, my AM dynamic duo

Now they even have a new Skimm Ahead app (app is free for the first month, the email is always free), which integrates with your calendar for fun stuff like when your favorite football team is playing or the latest season of “Stranger Things” is released on Netflix. I am such a huge fan that I have become a Skimmbassador ; if you sign up for The Skimm or their Skimm Ahead app using the link I posted above I am in the running for some cool Skimm gear, and once you become a Skimmer you could also earn them! It’s worth checking out!

Litsy – Has anyone been using this new book app? I downloaded it on my phone a while ago but just started really getting into it (user name is mytablesofcontent if you wanna find me!). It’s a fun combination of Instagram and Goodreads – you write reviews or post quotes of the book you’re reading and can post pictures as well, and people can comment and like your blurbs. It’s addicting!

AMAZING RAJASTHAN CITIES THAT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL ROYAL – I am obsessed with this travel blog, My Life’s A Movie. This is one of my favorite posts that she has done recently because, as y’all might know from a previous post, I’m traveling to India in November (!!). During my trip I’ll be visiting Rajasthan, and the prospect of spending the night in an actual palace sounds pretty dang appealing!!

My husband and I have experienced a season of change the past couple of months. With his law school graduation, our decision to move back South after living six years in Boston, and the end of my first professional job, our usually reliable schedule has been turned upside down.

TGIF, y’all! What are your plans for the weekend? I’ll be working on getting this new apartment organized while sipping on some wine, and hopefully some more brainstorming for improving this little blog space of mine 🙂 (please let me know of any suggestions!).

Fisherman’s Bastion in Buda

But first let’s kick the weekend off with some fun activities to add to your bucket list. Here are a few of my favorite sites to see and things to do in Budapest:Continue reading →

Oh Budapest, you were a dream! Although we’re still recovering from our jet lag and sun burns, I couldn’t wait another day to write about our wonderful trip to Eastern Europe.

We made many memories in Budapest, thanks to our travel company, Boutique Journeys, and our own research and planning, but our favorite activity of the trip BY FAR was our river boat cruise along the Danube River.